Record-Breaking Snake

Here's your nightly math! Just 5 quick minutes of number fun for kids and parents at home. Read a cool fun fact, followed by math riddles at different levels so everyone can jump in. Your kids will love you for it.

Record-Breaking Snake

The green anaconda is by far the biggest snake in the world. It’s the heaviest, the thickest, and also the second longest, outdone only by the python. Many snakes swallow whole animals like rabbits and raccoons for dinner, but the anaconda is so huge that it can swallow a whole deer in one gulp. It’s a good thing they don’t like to eat people! No one really knows how long the longest anaconda is, because they live in the jungles of South America far away from humans and are hard to find. Males easily grow to 16 feet – probably longer than your bedroom – and have reached 22 feet officially; people have said they’ve seen anacondas as long as 35 or even 40 feet, but no one has managed to bring a snake that long to a zoo or museum as proof. According to Wikipedia there’s even a cash prize of $50,000 for anyone who finds an anaconda 30 feet or longer, but no one has claimed it yet, and in a way that leaves us feeling better.

Wee ones: Female (girl) anacondas average around 15 feet long, while the males (boys) are 16 feet long. Who’s longer, the girl snakes or the boys?

Little kids: If a 21-foot anaconda meets up with a python just 1 foot longer, how long is the python? Bonus: If you’re 4 feet tall and you lay down next to that 21-foot anaconda, how much longer would the snake be?

Big kids: Anacondas can weigh up to 150 pounds! If that’s the weight of a 16-foot snake, how much would a 32-foot snake weigh if the weight doubles with length? Bonus: If 3 people actually found anacondas over 30 feet, how much prize money would be paid out at $50,000 per snake?

Answers:Wee ones: The boy snakes.

Little kids: 22 feet. Bonus: 17 feet.

Big kids: 300 pounds. Bonus: $150,000.

About the Author

Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is founder and president of Bedtime Math Foundation. Her goal is to make math as playful for kids as it was for her when she was a child. Her mom had Laura baking while still in diapers, and her dad had her using power tools at a very unsafe age, measuring lengths, widths and angles in the process. Armed with this early love of numbers, Laura went on to get a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business; she continues to star-gaze today. Laura’s other interests include her three lively children, chocolate, extreme vehicles, and Lego Mindstorms.